It’s official: Twitter has hit the mainstream. Want proof? My father asked me about “that Twitter thing.” Oh, and something about Oprah, something else about Ashton Kutcher and a 131% growth in March alone have also raised the social information site’s profile…just a bit. But as more people sign up for the service, the currency of Twitter, thought capital, will be based off the notion of citation. Or in Twitterspeak, the retweet.

With a flood of new users every day, it may become more difficult to find value in all the noise. This value comes in different forms: links to useful articles, best practice advice from industry leaders and live, up to the minute news stories to name just a few. However, the question we need to ask is; How do we measure the value of the content, as well as its owner? The answer lies in that ivory tower universe, academia.

Academic citation

There seems to be a parallel approach to determining who is a valued source and what is valued content with the academic model of citation.

Published research, peer and student evaluations and papers presented at conferences are some of the ways credibility is created in academia. And as we remember from our Research Class in college, research takes an idea and builds on it from previous research: hence the literature review. However, within this esoteric world, professors pride themselves on how often they get cited in others’ research.

The more citations, the more powerful the concept appears to be. The recommendation economy that has defined academia for centuries has been brought to the Web (incidentally, in the guise of Search and in the social graph. In fact, Google was started in the same fashion; the more citations of a page, the higher the ranking).

In this example, @ashley0206 found something @kwtodd linked to interesting. This simple retweet builds both @ashley0206’s and @kwtodd’s credibility. Why? Because now all of @ashley0206’s followers are now aware of @kwtodd. @kwtodd is now seen as someone who understands marketing, so people following @ashley0206 (like myself) will see if they want to follow @kwtodd. This retweet also allows @ashley0206’s followers see what she is into, thus adding to her credibility.

Why retweets are important

When it comes to retweets, you are saying a lot more than the content you are sharing. You are spreading an idea and declaring that a) you trust the source and b) you are interested in the shared content.

Retweets portray your values, your sense of humor, your interests. Your followers get to learn more about you while you engage, entertain and instruct them with someone else’s post. And as the value of retweets gain steam, not surprisingly, we see a lot of retweeted retweets.

Retweets squared

In this example, I retweeted @alisamleo’s retweet of @brooklynpublic’s original tweet). On one level, I’m just trying to spread the word about the Brooklyn Public Library’s survey. On another level, I am showing my love of both books/information and Brooklyn. In less than 140 characters, I have started to establish (and translate) who I am (a Brooklynite) and what I believe in (books, and by extension, knowledge).

Multiple retweets also emphasizes the content. It not only gives validity to the original and subsequent posters, but also provides valuable information. For example:

This time, several PR people that have established their value are sharing what they believe is an important article about the PR industry. Because the article has been retweeted several times from people whose opinions I trust, I am more readily convinced that I should read the piece.

Establishing thought capital

You can establish your own thought capital by retweeting relevant, timely, introspective tweets. You can also build your reputation on it. Take Sarah Evans. She retweets many links and adds value to conversations, while building enough thought capital to be considered something rare (yet often misguided in this field): an expert source.

But don’t go overboard. If you retweet too often, you dilute the message of the tweet. If you offer informative and valuable retweets, you will find that people will engage with you because of the shared interest or follow you because they see someone, like Sarah Evans, retweeting what you have said. Now, you are building your own capital.

And that’s the beauty of Twitter. It’s a self-sustaining social network site for thought sharing. People flock to it because of its ambiguous nature (you can use it however you want: follow famous people, follow industry people, follow brands…whatever) and ability to interact, but also because of the filtered information they crave. To build your influence or thought capital, spread the good word of someone else. Or, as @adamiss recently retweeted:

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